Shouldn't they also not have anywhere around 256, because if a 258 axle train has a couple of missed detections it'll still look like 0?
From the previous thread, some countries specific a little below 256 for a margin of safety:
Trains in Switzerland are not allowed to have 256 axles
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Re: Trains in Switzerland are not allowed to have 256 axles
#32They should do what the Norwegian Navy does, and put barcodes on the cars.
Why does Norway do it? When their ships pull into home port, they Scandinavian. ;)
Re: Trains in Switzerland are not allowed to have 256 axles
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Haha one can imagine this will be rapidly bred out of the species since it's such a significant maladaptation. Like dressing in Vantablack and running on a rural expressway.
To catch intruders dressed in Vantablack, you'll need one of those devices they use to find exoplanets.
Or, you know, infrared cameras :)
Re: Trains in Switzerland are not allowed to have 256 axles
#34Re: Trains in Switzerland are not allowed to have 256 axles
#35The thing is Switzerland is also the only country where I could imagine someone might know such a rule. Say you are working on connecting some trains, and you happen to be one car away from 256 axles. Well, if the org you're working for is SBB/CFF/FFS I could totally imagine the foreman saying "oh wait, there's a rule about this". Any other country, no way. From personal experience people there seem to follow the rul…
I would wager that they might be as meticulous in Japan too.
Re: Trains in Switzerland are not allowed to have 256 axles
#36Wah -- wah -- waaahhh.
Re: Trains in Switzerland are not allowed to have 256 axles
#37You can carry a maximum of 255 rupees in the original Legend of Zelda, and back in the day magazines commented on the "oddly specific" number.
That reminds me back when WoW was still 32 bits and people discovered the gold cap was 2 147 483 647 copper coins.
Re: Trains in Switzerland are not allowed to have 256 axles
#38This seems like a perfectly reasonably limitation in the context of european railroading (shorter trains, more frequency), when you consider that many European freight cars are 2 axle
Yes, generally freight trains are not allowed to be longer than 740m, because there would be few sidings or loops long enough to put them in. So in practice the axle limit is unlikely to be the actual limiting factor.
Re: Trains in Switzerland are not allowed to have 256 axles
#39The thing is Switzerland is also the only country where I could imagine someone might know such a rule. Say you are working on connecting some trains, and you happen to be one car away from 256 axles. Well, if the org you're working for is SBB/CFF/FFS I could totally imagine the foreman saying "oh wait, there's a rule about this". Any other country, no way. From personal experience people there seem to follow the rul…
They wouldn't need to to remember the rule, they would follow a checklist. And someone else would check that they are following the checklist.
Re: Trains in Switzerland are not allowed to have 256 axles
#40The "fixed with bureaucracy" thing is entertaining, but it's probably a delusion that the fix is effective.
For one thing, this rule is not intuitive and people aren't likely to remember it. People have an easier time remembering and following rules whose reasoning clicks with them. It's not a recipe for success to say, "Oh, there's this one weird thing that you can't do, and it isn't going to make sense to you why, but remember not to do it."
I also wonder whether, even if someone in the industry does know the rule and really wants to follow it, there's an easy method to know whether their train has 256 axles. Is there a procedure in which axles are counted or an automated system that does it? If it's a manual procedure, is it time-consuming and is there pressure to skip that step when you're in a rush?
And, if a fallible human being should make a mistake and run a train with 256 axles, is there any protection against the phantom, undetected train scenario, or is it a silent failure?